Australian election 2025 live: LNP candidate questioned over his Trump posts; Australia’s lone cardinal lands in Rome for pope’s funeral
LNP candidate questioned over his Trump social media posts
Sarah Basford Canales
At the press conference earlier with Peter Dutton, the LNP candidate in Leichhardt, Jeremy Neal, was asked whether he still supported Donald Trump after social media posts surfaced during the campaign.
Neal said “those views are [from] a very long time ago, and they were deleted a very long time ago”.
He added the US president’s decision to place tariffs on Australian exports had left a “sour taste” in his mouth.
Key events
Democracy sausages and photo opps
Prime minister Anthony Albanese, health minister Mark Butler and finance minister Katy Gallagher enjoyed some snags at a barbecue event with Labor supporters at Punchbowl Reserve in the Launceston electorate of Bass.
Australia’s lone cardinal in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral
Australia’s only cardinal has spoken in Rome hours before the funeral of Pope Francis, AAP reports.
The Melbourne-based Cardinal Mykola Bychok, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic official, opened up about what he said was “a profoundly sacred moment for the church and the world”.
The 88-year-old pope, who had led the church since 2013, died on Monday after suffering a stroke.
More than 200,000 people are expected to attend his funeral outside St Peter’s Basilica from 6pm AEST on Saturday.
Bychok, who Francis made a cardinal late in 2024, said the period since the pontiff’s death on Easter Monday had been “a most challenging time”.
“As a newly appointed cardinal, this experience is still very new to me,” he said.
I have only just arrived here in Rome after spending several days in the Holy Land – days that were marked by silence, prayer and reflection in the very places where our lord walked.
Bychok will be part of the conclave to choose a new pontiff, expected to start early in May.
Some 160 foreign delegations will attend the funeral alongside world leaders including Donald Trump.
Australia will be represented by the governor general, Sam Mostyn, ambassador to the Holy See Keith Pitt, cabinet minister Don Farrell and Riverina MP, Michael McCormack.
Valerie the dachshund treated to roast chicken after 529 days on the run
Kangala Wildlife Rescue has revealed Valerie the dachshund’s first meal after 529 days on the run.
In a social media update, Lisa Karran from the Kangaroo Island wildlife rescue organisation said:
We had her favourites – roast chicken and her favourite dog food as well – to help her recognise that we were safe and that we were not a threat.
Jared Karran, also from Kangala Wildlife Rescue, said:
She looks quite big on the camera. When I saw her in real life, she is tiny.
He said they were being extremely careful not to let Valerie out of the cage.
There was no way we were letting that sausage dog run away on us again.
They said Valerie’s owners, Josh and Georgia, were “over the moon” to receive the news that their dog had finally been secured and would be on her way home soon.
Henry Belot
‘Negative narrative’: co-author of Senate submission with Liberal candidate distances herself from claims Hazaras not persecuted due to ethnicity
An Afghan-Australian who co-authored a controversial Senate submission with the Liberal candidate for Bruce, Zahid Safi, says she had no involvement in its creation and wants to no longer be associated with it.
The 2021 submission to an inquiry into Australia’s involvement in the Afghanistan war suggested the Hazara community in Afghanistan was not persecuted on the basis of its ethnicity. This contradicted the Australian government and drew rebuke from international human rights groups.
The allegations led members of the Hazara community, which has a significant presence in the electorate of Bruce, to lodge their own dissenting submissions to the inquiry, alleging the claims sought to erase the “well-documented persecution of an entire ethnic group”.
Tamkin Hakim has told her social media followers that while she was aware the submission was being written, she “did not write it” and “did not endorse it”.
I did not consent for my name to be added to anything that created a negative narrative about the Hazara community. I have requested that my name be removed from any such statements, publications or submission that I did not personally author or endorse.
Hakim has previously accused the submission, which still carries her name, of “betraying” the Hazara community.
When contacted by Guardian Australia, Safi defended the submission and said he was “a staunch advocate for freedom of religion or belief for all individuals worldwide”:
A full and fair reading of my submission makes clear that I advocated for every single living individual at risk from the national atrocity and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
The Australian Hazara Advocacy Network has called on Safi to apologise for the contents of the submission and to be disendorsed. The petition has 15,000 signatures, although it is not known how many of these are from the electorate of Bruce or Victoria.
Wet and cloudy day in S-E Qld and northern NSW
South-east Queensland and northern New South Wales are looking at a wet and partly cloudy Saturday.
There is a high chance of showers for the southern border ranges in Queensland’s south-east, the Bureau of Meteorology says. There is medium chance of showers elsewhere, a chance of a thunderstorm in the south, and temperatures will get to the mid to high 20s.
For those in NSW’s northern rivers, expect cloudy skies, a very high chance of showers, a chance of a thunderstorm and light winds. Temperatures will reach the low to mid 20s.
Back to Back Barries: Could soft voters prove the polls wrong?
There’s only a week to go, and polls are showing that the gap between the two major parties is widening in favour of Anthony Albanese – but with such a high number of soft voters, can we count the Coalition out?
Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry discuss the big issues of the last week.
Listen here:
Petra Stock
Woman dies after falling at Mapleton Falls national park
Queensland police will prepare a report for the coroner after a 36-year-old woman died after reportedly falling 80 metres at Mapleton Falls national park on the Sunshine Coast yesterday.
A Queensland police spokesperson said:
Emergency services were called to Mapleton Falls around 3.30pm following reports a woman had fallen.
She was located deceased around 4.30pm.
The spokesperson said the death was not being treated as suspicious.
Virginia Giuffre has died by suicide at farm in Western Australia, family says
Virginia Giuffre, a survivor of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, has died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia, a statement from her family, attorney Sigrid McCawley and PR Dini von Mueffling says.
The statement reads:
It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia. She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors. Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.
The light of her life were her children Christian, Noah, and Emily. It was when she held her newborn daughter in her arms that Virginia realized she had to fight back against those who had abused her and so many others.
There are no words that can express the grave loss we feel today with the passing of our sweet Virginia. She was heroic and will always be remembered for her incredible courage and loving spirit.
In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight. We know that she is with the angels.
LNP candidate questioned over his Trump social media posts
Sarah Basford Canales
At the press conference earlier with Peter Dutton, the LNP candidate in Leichhardt, Jeremy Neal, was asked whether he still supported Donald Trump after social media posts surfaced during the campaign.
Neal said “those views are [from] a very long time ago, and they were deleted a very long time ago”.
He added the US president’s decision to place tariffs on Australian exports had left a “sour taste” in his mouth.
Sarah Basford Canales
‘We can win this election,’ Dutton tells LNP supporters in Cairns
Earlier this morning, Peter Dutton stopped by the Barr Street Markets in Cairns for breakfast with his supporters in the seat of Leichhardt.
The opposition leader was joined by the LNP candidate, Jeremy Neal, as they worked their way through the early morning crowd of poll booth volunteers.
Dutton thanked supporters and joked the breakfast was put on to feed them up quickly and get them to pre-poll stations as quickly as possible.
He said:
We’ve got all seven days ahead of us, but there’s no doubt in my mind, we can win this election, and we must for our great country.
After his press conference, Dutton and the media pack following his campaign travelled to Mount Sheridan, south of Cairns, to visit a new housing estate.
There he announced $33.8m in funding for the estate as part of the Coalition’s broader $5bn package to build the required infrastructure for houses, such as connecting sewerage and water.
Dutton said many places around the country faced “growing pains” in regards to new housing and the funding “provides support to those blocks of land being developed more quickly and coming on to market more quickly”.
Albanese warns about rising threat of far right
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says mainstream politics needs to speak out against a rise in far-right figures.
I condemned what happened yesterday with someone associated with neo-Nazis. I have had some of those figures confront me, as you may be aware, here in Melbourne.
I think it’s good that across the board, the political spectrum condemned what occurred yesterday. It was condemned by Mr Dutton as well. That’s a good thing.
Mainstream politics needs to speak out against far-right figures and the rise … We know from the Asio director general, Mr Burgess, he has publicly spoken about the threat … We know the consequences of this. We need to take this seriously. These threats. Because they are real.
The prime minister says it is “fantastic” that media organisations “have come together to speak out against hate”.
“I just think we as a society have got to come together.”
He also points to algorithms that encourage “people to go to more extreme views”.
Dutton avoids questions about Leichhardt candidate’s online history
Looking back to Peter Dutton’s press conference from the must-win seat of Leichhardt in Cairns earlier this morning, where the opposition leader vouched for his candidate Jeremy Neal.
Dutton said:
People know if they vote for Jeremy Neal, they’ll get more local doctors. They’re also going to get $6m more for local Headspace – and Headspace is something we’ve invested in for a long period of time … it provides that primary care response for young people presenting with mental health conditions, and it has made a big difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Australians.
On Wednesday, Neal’s online history, including controversial posts about China, Covid-19 restrictions and “feminists” who helped “kick out” Donald Trump in 2020, resurfaced.
Dutton avoided answering questions about Neal’s online history.
Neal is in a fight to retain the seat as Labor attempts to capitalise on the retirement of the veteran Liberal MP Warren Entsch.
